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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2 34 wasn't staying ready." Painter's message basically amounted to this: You're too good to play like that. He told the player he'd coveted since he was a sopho- more in high school in 2011 and seems to have relished coaching at Purdue since the player's arrival three years later that he wasn't playing well enough to start, or at least aggressive enough, though the two things aren't mutually exclusive to one another. "It was just something where I needed to change my mentality a little bit," Edwards said, "and that's part of growing and maturing." It began immediately. Displaced from his starting role, Edwards recalled a con- versation he had with his mother, Glennetta Patton, years earlier. He grew up in Middletown, Ohio — basically the half- way point between Dayton and Cincinnati in Southwest Ohio — and was about to play for its high school's varsity from Day 1 of his prep career. Figuring her son might not get the ball all that much as a 15-or-so-year-old, she suggested he go get it himself. She preached the importance of offensive rebounding, not only for scoring opportunities but for the engagement in the game that comes with the constant pursuit. Years later, here was that son, now 21 years old or so, needing a jolt. He found it through that offensive glass. Edwards has always possessed a knack for putbacks, whether it's due to his anticipation, persistence, slippery nature around the basket, whatever it may be. He's always been a productive rebounder at the offensive end and pro- ducer of garbage points. "You could tell he wasn't happy about it," classmate and fellow co-captain Dakota Mathias said of Edwards' move to the bench. "Great competitors respond. They don't dwell on it or badmouth anyone about it." Edwards' response began in Purdue's utter obliteration of Arizona State at Madison Square Garden, where his four offensive boards fueled a 6-of-9, 16-point line in a game his team led by as many as 42. Eleven days later, Purdue looked bound for yet another Crossroads Classic letdown in Indianapolis, trailing Notre Dame by 14 at the half after the Irish hung 52 points in the opening 20 minutes of play. Edwards started the second half in place of center Isaac Haas as Purdue went smaller to better match up with Notre Dame. Purdue opened on a 10-2 run. When Mathias missed a three a little less than three minutes into the half, Edwards pushed the run to 12-2 by corralling the rebound and laying it in. Later, after Purdue had overtaken the Irish on the scoreboard in what remained a back-and-forth, posses- sion-to-possession game with nine minutes left, Edwards cleaned up Caleb Swanigan's miss and scored. A few minutes later, he followed another Swanigan miss, drew a foul on Matt Farrell and made both free throws, put- ting Purdue up four with less than seven minutes to play. The Boilermakers won by five; they most likely wouldn't have without the six offensive rebounds turned in by their Paul Sadler Vincent Edwards took last season's demotion, a move to the bench, as motivation, and this summer the forward was playing the best basketball of his career. Purdue needs that to continue into his senior season.